It's not colour. It's contrast 🌓 Issue #65

I had a conversation with my team on Wednesday and we were talking about design. The conversation got to a point where we were talking about what colour to use for a new service we’re designing, to make it noticeable. I took a step back to try and understand what we were actually achieving.

The problem with delivering projects in isolation, is that you rarely get a sense of where it fits in the larger eco-system. Looking at colour, people see colour in different ways.

So the question isn’t around colour, it’s around contrast. How does this work with everything else? Do we have to change other things for this service to work? Certainly worth consideration.

Empathy is a buzzword in the tech industry. Although it’s important to work to understand the needs of the humans using our products, sometimes it seems like we talk about empathy more than we actually do it.

Understanding empathy and the part it plays in design is key to delivering user-centric design. A lot of it has to do with the tone and copy choices you make.

Does using a design manual take creativity away? Is creativity important for usability? Standards should be made and updated, but they should be creative in their approach. For more inspiration, check out last issue’s inclusion of Airbnb’s visual language.

A mix of eCommerce and cycling! Right on! In this Shopify Podcast, Oliver Cousins of Maap, premium cycling apparel company in Australia shares the reasons why they invested heavily into their brand identity by working with a creative agency very early on. Also check out Maap.cc.